Vapor Phase Soldering (VPS), a technology that addresses the challenges of the electronics industry.

Article from the magazine - Les Cahiers de l'Industrie Électronique et Numérique june 2024 - n° 120

Vapor Phase Soldering (VPS), a technology that addresses the challenges of the electronics industry.

Process overview

Vapor phase soldering (VPS) is a soldering process used to assemble electronic components onto printed circuit boards (PCBs). It uses vapor created by a medium, generally Galden®, to evenly heat the different elements: the printed circuit board, the components and the alloy. Galden® complies with ROHS regulations.

 Unrivalled performance

Vapor-phase soldering of electronic components is often considered the most efficient process for several reasons.

• Uniform heat distribution

  Steam heats the PCB and the components evenly, reducing the risk of damage caused by excessive or uneven heat to heat-sensitive critical components. This process is also the only one capable of ensuring heat transfer to elements with high thermal inertia with such a low level of stress. This even heat distribution eliminates soldering defects associated with other traditional techniques, such as tombstone effect (also known as Manhattan effect), or dry and cold solder joint.

• Reproducibility

  Vapor-phase soldering ensures the production of highly reproducible solder joints. The process can be repeated with great precision, ensuring consistent solder joint quality on every board.

• Resilient & reliable solder joints

  The vapor-phase soldering technique produces highly robust and reliable joints, able to withstand rigorous environmental conditions such as vibration, shock and temperature variations.

• Inerting system

  this process eliminates oxygen from the air during the soldering process. This prevents oxidization of the solder joints thereby guaranteeing a longer lifespan.

• Reduced air voids

  This soldering technology significantly reduces the creation of air voids and the presence of any residues in solder joints, ensuring excellent quality even for the most complex applications.

   

Simplicity of use

In addition to its outstanding technical performance, Vapor phase soldering offers excellent ease-of-use for both prototypes and production. In addition, it is possible to process boards of different designs in the same cycle, as long as the solder paste used has the same liquidus (melting) temperature. This technique guarantees unrivalled simplicity of adjustment of the reflow profile compared with other soldering techniques, and avoids any handling errors during the soldering cycle.

The challenges facing the electronics industry

The European electronics industry is facing a number of challenges, and seeks to maintain its productivity while developing innovative, higher added value products, all of which vapor-phase soldering makes possible.

• Component Miniaturization

  As the trend towards miniaturization of electronic components grows, especially with the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) and handheld devices, vapor phase soldering offers an efficient way to reliably assemble these components on small printed circuit boards.

• The increasing complexity of electronic boards

  Boards are becoming more and more complex with the integration of multifunctional components and advanced technologies such as power semiconductors, advanced sensors and RF components.  PCBs are becoming denser, with an ever-increasing number of layers and large mass plans, particularly in power electronics for managing the electrification of mobility. Vapor-phase soldering offers a precise and tight controlled method for soldering these components reliably.

• Environmental & regulation requirements

  Vapor phase soldering uses an environmentally- responsible process, compatible with ROHS regulations. These advantages meet the growing regulatory and sustainability requirements of the electronics industry.

• Productivity

  Vapor phase soldering machines make it possible to solder several boards with different designs on the same profiles, or even in the same cycles, thus increasing productivity while guaranteeing consistent quality of the soldered joints. This rationalization is essential to meet the growing demand for flexibility while maintaining high standards of quality and reliability.

• Compatibility with future technologies

  this process is a versatile technique that can be adapted to meet the requirements of future technologies, such as flexible substrates, 3D components and innovative materials.

• Reduced production errors

  the stability, precision and repetitiveness of this process help reduce production errors. These defects are very costly in terms of both management and intervention required to fix them. By reducing them, competitiveness is undeniably enhanced.

• Cutting-edge applications

  thanks to the quality of solder joints, reduced voids, repeatability and the outstanding precision of the homogeneous temperature control, this technology can be used to assemble the most demanding applications, whether in the medical, aerospace, automotive, military or high voltage industry.

Overall, vapor-phase soldering (VPS) offers a combination of precision, reliability, environmental friendliness and compatibility with emerging technological trends, making it a promising technology for the assembly of electronic components, which explains the current industry dynamism to adopt this technology for both prototyping and mass production

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